September 22, 2010

Ownership update

I talked to a bunch of people today about the sale of the team and the ESPN report that Bill Gallacher has pulled out of the sale and here's what I have found out so far:

According to one source, Gallacher has not officially alerted the NHL or the broker (Galatioto Sports Partners) that he is no longer interested in pursuing the purchase of the Stars. That doesn't mean he hasn't made that decision on his own, as ESPN reported, it just means he has not conveyed that information to the important parties.

Vancouver businessman Tom Gaglardi still is interested in purchasing the team, according to another source.

As for other people interested, there have been several parties sniffing around the team, but the people I have talked to believe these potential buyers do not believe the value is as high as the lenders would like it to be. That means we could have a long standstill in the negotiations until the economic pressures of running the team start to push on the sale.

Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk said on The Ticket today that he is looking at the beginning of the year for possible resolution, and one of the sources said that's probably a pretty good target.